


Learning to Fly

by mikuridaigo



Series: Judas!Verse [2]
Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Judas Verse, M/M, Swing Set, Tumblr request
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-21
Updated: 2012-06-21
Packaged: 2017-11-08 06:26:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,989
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/440145
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mikuridaigo/pseuds/mikuridaigo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>While walking back from grocery shopping Loki spots a swing set and wants to try it out, dragging Tony along of course.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Learning to Fly

**Author's Note:**

> This is a prompt by smartwatson on tumblr. I believe there's another Tony/Loki swing set story already posted here and for the record I am not trying to copy it. This was a prompt given to me on tumblr, and you can also find this story on my tumblr as well.   
> Edited by ourdeathswillstopnothing.tumblr.com  
> I think I said before that I won't be doing a sequel, but I will post up some short/cute stories of Loki and Tony in relation to Judas.

Loki didn’t notice it at first, in spite of the bird’s eye view he got from the tower he’d been vacating for the past month. He could’ve blamed on the fact that he never really cared to explore the tower (leaving his room, what with Tony around, was a challenge in itself), but he knows he probably would’ve have noticed it at all—had it not been for the Hawk’s suggestion that he—an Asgaurdian Prince, of all people, go grocery shopping. He had no clue as to why Clint suddenly brought it up (since Tony had people to do things like that for them) but Clint insists, on account of his decision that they needed to be “more human”. They also had to wear, of course, civilian clothes. Clint took this opportunity to attempt to convince the two Asgaurdians that it was perfectly normal to wear wife-beaters and short shorts for grocery shopping. 

(Loki promptly thanked Natasha for slapping the back of Clint’s head and choosing their clothes for them.)

So after three painful hours of shopping for food Thor insists on taking a short cut through a part of Central Park. Unsure of himself how to head home Loki had no choice but to follow his oaf of a brother. People they walk by raise their eyebrows, watching Thor carrying five bags in each other his arms while Loki drags two smaller ones and complains most of the way ( _“honestly, Thor, it would take us two seconds to get home if you’d just let me teleport us!”_ ). Thor drowns his brother’s complaints by humming to himself—causing Loki to complain more loudly. The two stop, however, when they hear a child’s loud cry.

Thor almost dropped the bag of groceries, ready to spring to action to help the child. _Almost_. Loki grabs his brother’s arm to stop him and points to the child; a small girl, no older than five, is sitting on a suspended wooden seat that is being supported by a chain connected to a metal pole about ten feet above the ground. She didn’t look –and yet she cried out. That is, until an older boy walked behind her and gently nudged her. Her cry is immediately silenced when she is moved forward and then back, eventually picking up momentum. The boy steps back to play in the sand while the girl now laughs happily on the wooden non-grounded bench.

The God of Thunder smiles; placated by her happiness, and adjusts the groceries in his arms before continuing on. However Loki stays in place, tilting his head slightly as he watches the girl’s amusement of being suspended from the ground. _Is this some form of flying?_ He wondered.

“Brother, are you coming?” Thor’s voice echoes. Loki shakes his head clear and quickly follows. _Get your head together. It’s just a young Midgardian play thing_.

The rest of the week stays calm, with little villain activity. Widow and Hawkeye stepped out here and there to catch petty criminals (to ease the pain of boredom), while Thor, Sif, and Steve stayed in the mansion to become more acquainted with 21st century technology (courtesy of Bruce) and Loki attached himself to Tony. But whenever the couple stationed themselves in the bedroom, which was on the highest floor, he found himself often looking out the window at the large flying contraption the girl had been playing on. He had assumed it was only for children, only to later see a group of teenagers taking turns playing on the thing, and was even further shocked at a later point when he spotted a married couple sitting on the wooden planks. So, if Midgardian adults could do it, why couldn’t he? And why didn’t they have such contraption on Asgaurd, anyways? No doubt, jumping down waterfalls and riding horses after roaring monsters was fun—but did that mean there was anything wrong with doing something so simple and pleasing? Not to Loki.

He’s preparing himself to ask Tony about the metal toys when the Avengers’ alarm goes off, alerting them of an attack occurring in the neighboring city. The battle lasts too long for Loki’s taste, and the Avengers only have a couple hours of rest before another attack by sewer-rat-people-mutant things surface and destroyof three blocks of the city. The battles rage on, chaos overtaking the city, and for the next week the Avengers get little rest.

Until one blissfully quiet night.

There are no board meetings, no weirdly dressed villains attacking, the paparazzi are going easy on them. Tony treats the team to Shawarma, much to Sif and Bruce’s liking, and the team relaxes at the small family owned restaurant. They leave sometime between ten and eleven, Thor taking a shortcut straight through Central Park. Tony and Loki are walking slower than the rest of the team; their hands intertwined as Loki spots the playground again and stops in place. “Loki?” Tony asks.

Loki is staring at the empty playground and smiles widely. “Go on ahead,” he calls to the team. “Tony and I will meet back at the tower later this night.” He tells the team.

Thor raises an eyebrow, of what Loki would want with Tony now, in the middle of a public place, at eleven o’clock at night, but Clint pats him on the shoulder reassuringly as if to say _they’re adults, man_.

“What are we doing?” Tony asks.

Loki smiles and leads him to the thing that has been confounding him for days now. “What is this?”

Tony blinks a couple of times, looks at Loki and back to the playground. “The swing set?” he laughs a little disbelievingly.

“Ah, _swing_ set! What a fitting name!” He releases Tony’s hand and sits on the swing, and looks up at Tony expectantly. “I believe this is the time you push me.” Again, Tony blinks in utter confusion, too stunned at Loki’s childlike attitude to even move. “Tony? Aren’t you going to push me?”

“I-um… why?”

Loki grips the chains. “Well, a few weeks ago Thor and I saw a child crying because she was stagnated instead of swinging back and forth—like a pendulum. I would like to see why.” He swings his feet impatiently, but Tony doesn’t move. “Do I need to make you do it?”

Finally, Tony chuckles and moves behind him. “I can’t believe I’m pushing a _God_ on a swing set.” He gently pushes Loki’s back. Tony hears his boyfriend laugh lightly as he pushes again and once more before Loki is able to swing by himself. Loki’s laugh becomes louder and he closes his green eyes, enjoying the feel of the wind pushing against him. “I can feel why you mortals take pleasure in this! Join me Tony, there’s another seat.”

Tony scratches the back of his head and looks at the sand. “I don’t think so…”

“Why not? Do you need my assistance?”

“No, I can do it on my own, it’s just… “ He stops, looking at the confused expression on Loki’s face. “ah, what the hell?” he relents. He sits down on the swing next to Loki, moving his legs to swing. Loki immediately notices the leg movements he’s using to keep swinging, and the two begin to swing in sync. Loki continues to smile but when he looks at his lover the shorter man is looking down, not smiling. “What’s wrong?”

Tony sighs. “It’s nothing, just thinking about some old memories.”

Loki’s swing is a couple seconds behind Tony’s. “Bad ones, by the look of it.”

The billionaire scoffs. “No kidding,” and his attempt at a smile is only a grimace. “You know, I haven’t been on a swing since I was seven.”

“But these are common on Midgard, am I right? I suspect even Ms. Romanoff has gone on one, although she refuses to admit it.”

That makes Tony laugh and finally look at him. “You’re right, especially about Natasha. But… well most of the time children go to these parks with family. My parents never had time for things like this, and well, I didn’t want to drag Jarvis out here…”

Loki raises an eyebrow. “JARVIS? Your computer program?”

“Oh! Sorry, I didn’t mention… Jarvis is named after a human. He was more like a father than Howard Stark was, really. But even while I was young he was already old, like a grandfather. He died before I graduated college. I built JARVIS in his memory, and for the longest time before the Avengers and you, he kept me company.”

Both of their swings began to slow down. “Thank you for telling me that.” Loki whispers to him.

Tony smiles. “I think you’re the only one I’ve told.”

“I’m glad that I was the first, then.” Loki looks straight ahead and a thought suddenly pops in his mischievous mind. “I saw some children having a contest on these once…about who could jump the furthest off of them.” He sways his legs to regain his momentum, and, when he’s satisfied with his height, gracefully jumped off, landing, poised as though he were a dancer, on his feet. He turned to look at Tony.

“Your turn! Let’s see if you can go farther than I.”

Tony never regains the original speed as he gulps nervously. “Uh- I don’t think so. I’ll just stop it and come down on my own.”

Loki places a hand on his hips. “Really now? You fly hundreds of feet in the air and fall out of buildings yet you don’t wan to jump from a children’s toy?”

“Okay one, I have a suit of armor on and two, youthrew me out that building once upon a time. Even as a kid I didn’t jump from swings.”

“It’s not that hard, just pick up height. I’ll catch you…” Loki says wiggling his eyebrow.

Tony pouts and blushes as he kicks his legs to swing higher. There is no way Loki will ‘catch him’ if he stumbles.

Once he reaches his own preferred height, Tony releases himself from the seat and finds his place to land. Yet his sleeve, for a quick second, got caught in the chain and set of panic in Tony, and he lands, stumbling, forward. He closes his eyes and waits for the sandy impact when two arms catch him. Tony looks up to Loki’s signature smirk.

“I told you I would catch you.”

His face is almost as red as his Iron Man suit as he detaches himself and starts walking away. “Come on…”

Loki stands in place, confused by being pushed away. But looking closely he sees Tony’s ears are red and the man is hunched over with his hands in his pocket. A soft smile grows on the God’s face as he catches up with the shorter man and he puts his hand around his waist to pull him close. Loki kisses the top of his head while Tony rolls his eyes leans into him anyways.

~~~

The next few days Tony catches Loki talking about the swings with Thor, who equally seems amused. Tony responds by taking a day off to build a swing set for the roof. When he shows it to Loki and Thor the older brother immediately ran to the set, and hopping on and causing the metal to spring due to his weight. Loki picks up Tony, spins him around and kisses him, repeating ‘thank you, thank you!’ over and over before joining his brother.

And as the sun began to set the brothers were still on the swings, not swinging, but talking and laughing. Natasha praises Tony for being able to bring the two brothers together. Clint immediately asks Tony if he’s installed another, though slightly different, sort of swing in their bedroom.

As a response, both Bruce and Tony decided that it was time to get around to some particularly dangerous experiments—once only a Hawk— _their Hawk_ , could test.


End file.
